Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Sets the Stage for a New National Gun Ban

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has sided with the State of Maryland’s gun ban. The Court last week upheld Maryland’s highly restrictive “Firearms Safety Act.” This flies in the face of precedence already set by the Supreme Court. This sets the stage for the 4th Circuit to get slapped down. It is also important that Judge Neil Gorsuch be confirmed to the Supreme Court.

As Written By Jonathan F. Keiler for American Thinker:

In an unusual opinion that at times reads more like an op-ed at the New York Times than a legal ruling, the 4th Circuit Court last week upheld Maryland’s highly restrictive “Firearms Safety Act.” It’s apparent that the 4th Circuit acted in anticipation of a Hillary Clinton victory in November, in which case its decision would have gone unchallenged by the Supreme Court or affirmed, thus substantially laying the groundwork for the overturn of the Supreme Court’s ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, and with that the effective national evisceration of the 2nd Amendment under a second Clinton administration. The 4th Circuit, like a lot of people, miscalculated, and their judicial overreach should push a heretofore reluctant Supreme Court to reinforce the Heller decision.

The 4th Circuit’s decision in Kolbe et al v. Maryland was a direct, if often legally incomprehensible attempt to greatly limit the Supreme Court’s seminal decision in Heller and set the stage for a new national ban on semi-automatic rifles. Heller held that the 2nd Amendment confers an individual not a collective right to keep and bear arms. Kolbe, so long as it stands, says this individual right does not extend to any firearm with military utility, which is arguably pretty much every gun ever made.

That’s for the long term. More immediately, the decision transparently is an attempt to pave the way for a return of a national ban on AR-15-type rifles, falsely labeled by the Court and various gun banners “assault rifles.” Had Hillary won the election in November, as the Court expected, it would have been a done….